Empirical philosophies of mind

Three anthropological contributions within the debates on rationality and modes of thought are considered here: Horton's ‘African Traditional Thought and Western Science’, Gellner's Legitimation of Belief and Needham's Belief, Language and Experience. It is argued that within these texts, seemingly diverse and even opposed in theoretical position though they are, certain anthropological imperatives are common. Various philosophical views are invoked in these works in order to grapple with recurrent problems of social anthropology, a discipline conceived as the ‘empirical philosophy of mind’ and expressing itself as an essentially epistemological discourse. These attempts are unsuccessful but the reasons for their lack of success can be traced to certain constraints within the anthropological problematic itself.     

German expellee organisations in the enlarged EU

This article examines German expellees (Vertriebene) as an interest group in domestic and enlarged European Union contexts. While their background and motivations may be unique, they have similarities to other non-party actors aiming to influence political and/or legal processes. German governments have made rhetorical and financial expressions of support but privileged foreign policy considerations over core expellee demands and sought to contain them as an internal issue. EU enlargement and accession by CEE states to its legal bases has been interpreted as opening new possibilities. A ‘Europeanising’ of ‘justice’ may have unintended implications for relations among European states and peoples.     

Comparing employment policy governance regimes in Canada and the European Union

This article assesses the performance of Canada's employment policy governance regime post‐1996 by explicitly comparing Canadian approaches to those used in the European Union (EU) through the open method of coordination (OMC). It concludes that Canada has moved so far along the decentralization continuum — with 13 provincial systems as well as a federal‐only system in place — that coordination, coherence, mutual learning and information sharing on a pan‐Canadian basis have been lost. While EU OMC approaches hold promise, to be realized stakeholders would need to become more engaged in the policy domain and provinces, rather than the federal government, must take the initiative for enhanced coordination.     

Book reviews

Tetsuya Kataoka, The Price of a Constitution: The Origin of Japan's Postwar Politics New York: Crane Russak, 1991, 237 pp.

Denis Lacorne, Jacques Rupnik, and Marie‐France Toinet, eds., The Rise and Fall of Anti‐Americanism: A Century of French Perception (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990), 258p.     

Exploring poverty traps and social exclusion in South Africa using qualitative and quantitative data

Recent theoretical work hypothesises that a polarised society like South Africa will suffer a legacy of ineffective social capital and blocked pathways of upward mobility that leaves large numbers of people trapped in poverty. To explore these ideas, this paper employs a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods. Novel econometric analysis of asset dynamics over the 1993–98 period identifies a dynamic asset poverty threshold that signals that large numbers of South Africans are indeed trapped without a pathway out of poverty. Qualitative analysis of this period and the period 1998–2001 more deeply examines patterns of mobility, and confirms the continuation of this pattern of limited upward mobility and a low-level poverty trap. In addition, the qualitative data permit a closer look at the specific role played by social relationships. While finding ample evidence of active social capital and networks, these are more helpful for non-poor households. For the poor, social capital at best helps stabilise livelihoods at low levels and does little to promote upward mobility. While there is thus some economic sense to sociability in South Africa, elimination of the polarised economic legacy of apartheid will ultimately require more proactive efforts to assure that households have access to a minimum bundle of assets and to the markets needed to effectively build on those assets over time.     

Interventions for Intimate Partner Violence: A Historical Review

Intimate partner violence (IPV), also known as domestic abuse or relationship violence, has generated a large research literature for the last half-century, particularly in the areas of criminal justice, psychology, and the social sciences. Interventions for victims and perpetrators of IPV have largely been sequestered to separately evolving efforts of law enforcement and the psychotherapeutic community (Chang et al. Women’s Health Issues, 15(1), 21–30, 2005; Dalton Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 15(1), 59–75, 2007; Dobash and Dobash 2000; Feder et al. 2008; Gerbert et al. Journal of Family Practice, 49(10), 889–895, 2000; Wathen and MacMillan. Journal of the American Medical Association, 289(5), 589–600, 2003). This article presents a brief overview of the historical evolution and development of these discrete perspectives and identifies and assesses current collaborative interventions rooted in these historical precedents. In conclusion, the authors provide a summative discussion of the most current findings of research into IPV interventions, with a particular focus on the changing roles of race and gender in both the criminal prosecution of IPV and services provided to IPV perpetrators and victims.     

Factors affecting the forensic examination of automotive lubricating oils

Lubricating oil comparisons impact a variety of forensic investigations, including cases where oil was transferred from a suspect vehicle to the crime scene or victim. In this study, high-temperature gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to examine the influence of oil mixtures and oil changes over time on the comparison of known and questioned lubricating oils. Varying concentrations of oil mixtures were prepared and showed the potential for identifying individual components. Motor oils from 18 automobiles monitored over a 2-month period did not demonstrate significant changes in the chromatographic data. Chemometric analysis of motor oil mass spectral data provided little information regarding differentiation of, or changes in, the samples. Power steering fluid (PSF) from a naturally occurring leak collected from several locations was consistent with the PSF in the automobile's reservoir, and the PSF composition did not change over time.